A fleet of Chinese marine surveillance ships monitor Japanese ships from different angles, after they find the Japanese ships in waters around the Diaoyu Islands on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. [Photo: sohu.com]

A fleet of eight Chinese marine surveillance ships successfully drove Japanese ships away from the waters off the Diaoyu Islands on Tuesday.

"The Japanese boats have left the waters as of 10:00 am Tuesday under the pressure from Chinese maritime enforcement ships," said a statement released by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA).

Earlier reports said ten ships with more than 80 Japanese rightists aboard set out late Monday for the islets in the East China Sea at the center of a territorial dispute between China and Japan.

According to another SOA statement, three Chinese ships spotted the Japanese ships in the waters surrounding the islands Tuesday morning and began mornitoring them after being reinforced by another five ships sent from elsewhere in the East China Sea.

The Chinese ships closed in on the Japanese ships from four directions, said the statement.

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